It's no surprise that Tank stances in SHB have taken a huge hit in terms of both job identity, and in terms of gameplay impact. The emnity generation buff was a welcome change imo that helps new tanks get used to the role, but the removal of the traits that made those tank stances unique are indeed hurting the job identities. I thought of some basic ideas that could return flavour to the tanks, but I'm interested to see if any other ideas are floating around out there.
As a general rule, the Tank and DPS stances would be placed into their own unique action icons, similar to duty icons, so as to eliminate button bloat. they could sit somewhere to the side of the screen, customisable by the UI elements, and for controller players (such as myself) the stances would be activated by pressing either L3 or R3 while holding down a trigger, just like duty actions.
PLD - one stance at a time active. shield is defencive stance based on making sheltron/sentinel more useful. sword is dps stance that makes support skills easier to use. shield bash is reintroduced as ot skill only
Shield Oats - lv 10
Generates emnity
block rate +20%
generate 10 oath gauge each time you block an attack under sentinel
lower cost of sheltron to 30 gauge (trait at 74)
transforms royal authority into atonement after combo, good for 3 uses. does not decay or break combo
Sword Oats - lv 30 (unlocked via job stone acquisition)
transforms sheltron into shield bash, instant cast 200 potency + 6 sec stun. cost 50 gauge to use, does not break combo
spells cast by PLD no longer break combo
holy spirit generates 10 oath gauge upon use (to help shield bash match atonement power while in shield oath)
lowers cost of intervention to 30 gauge (lv 74 trait)
~~~~~~~~~~
WAR - basically a lot of hp regen due to no passive def bonuses. deliverance helps build more beast gauge. both stances can be active, similar to old playstyle. both ogcd, 10 sec recast. ideally you wanna drop deliverance during high healing moments or certain burst windows
Defiance - lv 10
30% base HP boost
20% self recovery boost
adds bloodbath effect to all attacks while under vengeance or thrill of battle
restores 50% of damage dealt from all beast gauge attacks
Deliverance - lv 30 (acquired with job stone, similar to PLD)
hp via self recovery reduced by 50%
transforms storms path into butchers block (gives buff that increases skill speed for 30 seconds)
all attacks generate 5 beast gauge while under berserker (max of 50 units)
~~~~~~~~~
DRK - will have the ability to keep both stances on, similar to WAR gameplay. grit helps maximise hp regen, darkside boosts mp regen. flood and blood weapon moved to lv 30, edge lv 35, stalwart lv 40. potencies of both edge and flood would have to be lowered to adjust for more mp building. flood/edge/abyss drain each cost 3k mana. tbn would still grant free edge/flood/abyss casts.
Grit - lv 10
increase emnity
increase magic defence 20%
adds blood price effect to Shadow Wall and Dark Mind (restores max 1500 MP at lv 52, 25 blood lv 66)
transforms edge of shadow into abyss drain, same potency as edge but with hp restoration effect (trait at lv 56)
Darkside - lv 30
stops mana generation via natural regeneration ticks
transforms Souleater into Power Slash, leaving dot similar to scourge
doubles mana regen from Blood Weapon, Syphon Strike, Stalwart Soul, and Carve and Spit
~~~~~~~~~~
GNB - same as PLD, can only have one stance active. Defencive stance helps buff defences, dps stance helps with utility. tbh I can't think of any other way to make this job feel more tanky than to introduce arbitrary shell costs to its utility
Royal Guard - lv 10
generates emnity
Parry rate + 30%
each time an attack is parried under camouflage or nebula, generates cartridge, up to a max of 4
danger zone, blasting zone, bow shock, and sonic break now generate 1 cartridge
heart of stone and aurora each cost 1 cartridge to use, but still have a 25 and 60 sec cooldown respectively
sword master - lv 30 (Yes name is a blatant DMC ripoff, but isnt the Tank stance that too?)
brutal shell and solid barrel each generate 1 cartridge (this hopefully increases dps to match other tank stance changes
each successful part of gnashing fang combo shortens cooldown of no mercy by 5 seconds
heart of stone and aurora cost 2 gauge to use, but can be used with no cooldown
each successful part of continuation combo shortens cooldown of bloodfest by 5 secs
~~~~~~~~~~
Let me know if you guys have any ideas of your own, or if you think my ideas are too blatantly OP. I tried to keep most of the potencies in line with each other by transforming skills I believe to be more on the tank side into skills that are more on the dps side. who knows if any of these ideas are balanced though. most of these passive effects would have to be unlocked via traits received with the corresponding skills of course. I think that skill transformation has the potential to solve button bloat + introduce skills that would be balanced by being only active on MT or OT stances. what do you guys think?
Continue reading...
As a general rule, the Tank and DPS stances would be placed into their own unique action icons, similar to duty icons, so as to eliminate button bloat. they could sit somewhere to the side of the screen, customisable by the UI elements, and for controller players (such as myself) the stances would be activated by pressing either L3 or R3 while holding down a trigger, just like duty actions.
PLD - one stance at a time active. shield is defencive stance based on making sheltron/sentinel more useful. sword is dps stance that makes support skills easier to use. shield bash is reintroduced as ot skill only
Shield Oats - lv 10
Generates emnity
block rate +20%
generate 10 oath gauge each time you block an attack under sentinel
lower cost of sheltron to 30 gauge (trait at 74)
transforms royal authority into atonement after combo, good for 3 uses. does not decay or break combo
Sword Oats - lv 30 (unlocked via job stone acquisition)
transforms sheltron into shield bash, instant cast 200 potency + 6 sec stun. cost 50 gauge to use, does not break combo
spells cast by PLD no longer break combo
holy spirit generates 10 oath gauge upon use (to help shield bash match atonement power while in shield oath)
lowers cost of intervention to 30 gauge (lv 74 trait)
~~~~~~~~~~
WAR - basically a lot of hp regen due to no passive def bonuses. deliverance helps build more beast gauge. both stances can be active, similar to old playstyle. both ogcd, 10 sec recast. ideally you wanna drop deliverance during high healing moments or certain burst windows
Defiance - lv 10
30% base HP boost
20% self recovery boost
adds bloodbath effect to all attacks while under vengeance or thrill of battle
restores 50% of damage dealt from all beast gauge attacks
Deliverance - lv 30 (acquired with job stone, similar to PLD)
hp via self recovery reduced by 50%
transforms storms path into butchers block (gives buff that increases skill speed for 30 seconds)
all attacks generate 5 beast gauge while under berserker (max of 50 units)
~~~~~~~~~
DRK - will have the ability to keep both stances on, similar to WAR gameplay. grit helps maximise hp regen, darkside boosts mp regen. flood and blood weapon moved to lv 30, edge lv 35, stalwart lv 40. potencies of both edge and flood would have to be lowered to adjust for more mp building. flood/edge/abyss drain each cost 3k mana. tbn would still grant free edge/flood/abyss casts.
Grit - lv 10
increase emnity
increase magic defence 20%
adds blood price effect to Shadow Wall and Dark Mind (restores max 1500 MP at lv 52, 25 blood lv 66)
transforms edge of shadow into abyss drain, same potency as edge but with hp restoration effect (trait at lv 56)
Darkside - lv 30
stops mana generation via natural regeneration ticks
transforms Souleater into Power Slash, leaving dot similar to scourge
doubles mana regen from Blood Weapon, Syphon Strike, Stalwart Soul, and Carve and Spit
~~~~~~~~~~
GNB - same as PLD, can only have one stance active. Defencive stance helps buff defences, dps stance helps with utility. tbh I can't think of any other way to make this job feel more tanky than to introduce arbitrary shell costs to its utility
Royal Guard - lv 10
generates emnity
Parry rate + 30%
each time an attack is parried under camouflage or nebula, generates cartridge, up to a max of 4
danger zone, blasting zone, bow shock, and sonic break now generate 1 cartridge
heart of stone and aurora each cost 1 cartridge to use, but still have a 25 and 60 sec cooldown respectively
sword master - lv 30 (Yes name is a blatant DMC ripoff, but isnt the Tank stance that too?)
brutal shell and solid barrel each generate 1 cartridge (this hopefully increases dps to match other tank stance changes
each successful part of gnashing fang combo shortens cooldown of no mercy by 5 seconds
heart of stone and aurora cost 2 gauge to use, but can be used with no cooldown
each successful part of continuation combo shortens cooldown of bloodfest by 5 secs
~~~~~~~~~~
Let me know if you guys have any ideas of your own, or if you think my ideas are too blatantly OP. I tried to keep most of the potencies in line with each other by transforming skills I believe to be more on the tank side into skills that are more on the dps side. who knows if any of these ideas are balanced though. most of these passive effects would have to be unlocked via traits received with the corresponding skills of course. I think that skill transformation has the potential to solve button bloat + introduce skills that would be balanced by being only active on MT or OT stances. what do you guys think?
Continue reading...